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PETA mounts an offensive … and it’s offensive
By Gina Spadafori
April 13, 2009
Seems it’s a little hotter at PETA these days, and they can’t take it as well as they can dish it out. Ripped by some animal-lovers for their shelter kill rates (90-plus percent) and for their fighting against the promise of “no-kill” communities, they’re flooding Google ads with links offering their spin on the criticism.
On their killing: Ingrid Newkirk on “why we euthanize.” Spin without what we need to see to believe what’s being written: Proof that these animals were not truly adoptable (or could not be made adoptable on PETA’s multimillion-dollar budget). In other words: PETA shows us a few truly stomach-turning pictures of sick, injured and neglected animals. Are they candidates for a humane death? Probably … but we have all seen abuse/neglect cases as bad as these recover and go on to good homes forever.
Instead of the shocking pictures, show us the veterinary and behavioral evaluations of the 2,000-plus pets (animals taken in for the “purpose of adoption,” according to the Commonwealth of Virginia report all shelters must file) who left the premises in body bags last year. Until PETA ponies up the paperwork, it’s hard not to remember those animals said to be adoptable in sworn court testimony, given the needle in a van and dumped by PETA workers in grocery store garbage bins. Newkirk writes:
I always wonder how anyone cannot recognize that there is a world of difference between painlessly euthanizing animals out of compassion—aged, injured, sick, and dying animals whose guardians can’t afford euthanasia, for instance—as PETA does, and causing them to suffer terror, pain, and a prolonged death while struggling to survive on the streets, at the hands of untrained and uncaring “technicians,” or animal abusers.
Don’t know about you, but I absolutely get that it’s a mercy to euthanize an animal whose suffering cannot be relieved. But I also recognize that in many cases “euthanizing” is just a a nice word for “killing,” which is what happens every day to animals who are adoptable or could be made adoptable — and would be adopted with leadership not being shown by PETA.
When you learn what no-kill is really about, you know what a crock the above statement is. There are more than two choices, kill or let suffer. High time the high priestess of animal rights looked at the options. There is not a “crisis” of pet overpopulation (shelter populations and deaths have dropped steadily for decades); there is a crisis of the leadership needed to get programs to target people who want to do right, and to get shelter animals into homes.
On the “no kill” movement: PETA continues to claim that “no kill” is about hoarding and warehousing:
Some people have suggested that the solution to companion animal overpopulation lies with so-called “no-kill,” or “limited-admission,” shelters. Sadly, these facilities often have major problems that affect animals. Animals at “no-kill” shelters who have been deemed unadoptable may be “warehoused” in cages for years. They become withdrawn, severely depressed, or aggressive, which further decreases their chances for adoption. Cageless facilities avoid the cruelty of constant confinement but unintentionally encourage fighting and the spread of disease among animals.
The problem with this is that “no kill” is not about hoarding and warehousing. It’s about shelters providing shelter for pets who need it temporarilly, and working with animal-lovers in the community to develop and fund pro-active programs to bring spay-neuter services to people who want to alter their pets but can’t because of money or transportation issues, programs to elicit volunteers to foster pets and help with adoption outreach. And finally, programs to target special needs populations, such as working to manage feral cat colonies through trap-neuter-release program. (PETA’s answer to feral cats, by the way, is here. Surprise! They carefully parse a policy statement that’s largely against feral cat colony management.)
Why does PETA choose blaming others and spreading hate over working for change and building bridges? Why is anyone still listening to PETA?
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Bold statements that need to be stressed. You are not alone in your opinion, Gina. Bravo!
Comment by Roberta Beach Jacobson — April 13, 2009 @ 9:44 am
I wonder how many days of food and shelter and training for a dog or cat one Google ad could pay for?
Comment by H. Houlahan — April 13, 2009 @ 9:52 am
What kind of sick mind thinks that killing healthy, adoptable pet dogs and cats is ok under any circumstances, especially when so many other proven options exist?
Oh, wait….those require time and effort that won’t get lots of media attention. Well, the heck with THAT.
I have this mental image of Ingrid as Cruella de Ville, blue syringe in hand, leering at some poor, helpless dogs and cats, saying “Hold still, dearies, it’s for your own good.”
Comment by Susan Fox — April 13, 2009 @ 11:05 am
I picture her as the Wicked Witch of the West saying “I’ll get you my pretty and your little dogs and cats too.”
Its about time she got a few buckets of water dumped on her.
Comment by 2CatMom — April 13, 2009 @ 11:10 am
She is beyond depraved.
I believe she must be mentally ill.
Not that this excuses her behavior, and especially not the behavior of her acolytes.
Comment by EmilyS — April 13, 2009 @ 11:19 am
Susan: “I have this mental image of Ingrid as Cruella de Ville, blue syringe in hand, leering at some poor, helpless dogs and cats, saying ‘Hold still, dearies, it’s for your own good.’” — That’s what Ingrid Newkirk DID here in DC at the Washington Humane Society before she became Queen of PETA. She was working there (I don’t recall as a volunteer or not) and was so horrified at the suffering and conditions, that she would come in before her shift and play angel of death. Scary? Scares me.
Comment by Susan — April 13, 2009 @ 11:24 am
“She was working there (I don’t recall as a volunteer or not) and was so horrified at the suffering and conditions, that she would come in before her shift and play angel of death.”
Haven’t there been many cases of individuals who do this in human nursing homes and hospitals? They are considered a type of serial killer. I think the same applies here.
Comment by Barbara Saunders — April 13, 2009 @ 12:17 pm
Hmmm… methinks by definition one could argue that Ms. Newkirk is living a “tortured” existence.
Perhaps we, as a society, should stand up against this obvious cruelty and ensure (for “human rights” sake, of course) that she is quickly and “humanely” euthanized. Why allow her to continue a life of such painful emotional suffering?
Surely if our society was a humane one we would end this individual’s life quickly and painlessly - after all… it’s for her own good.
Comment by Kim — April 13, 2009 @ 1:33 pm
Wow, she really expects people to believe that 96% of the animals PETA received in their ‘shelter’ were so badly mangled and/or insane that they HAD to die? Really?!
Comment by Pai — April 13, 2009 @ 2:04 pm
Comment by Pai — April 13, 2009 @ 2:04 pm
I was wondering the exact same thing!
I find it odd that the ASPCA doesn’t euth all their cruelty cases . . . . they also have this really crazy behavior program where they rehab dogs! {snark}
With all the examples of shelters and rescues treating and working with their animals, she’s really dived off the cliff here . . . .
Comment by straybaby — April 13, 2009 @ 2:13 pm
“Animals at “no-kill” shelters who have been deemed unadoptable may be “warehoused” in cages for years. They become withdrawn, severely depressed, or aggressive, which further decreases their chances for adoption. Cageless facilities avoid the cruelty of constant confinement but unintentionally encourage fighting and the spread of disease among animals.”
Substitute the nouns ‘homes’ and ‘houses’ for shelters and cageless facilities, and there you have the heart of Newjerk’s agenda.
Comment by Anne T — April 13, 2009 @ 2:40 pm
Let’s see. My last rescue foster was a one year old olde english buldogge with ulcers on both eyes, ear infections and skin sepsis (secondary to demodex and staph) so badly that you gagged to be in the same room with him, much less a car!
Oh, and interdigital cysts between every toe, underweight and terrified. I stopped counting small skin abcesses at 50 or so.
I wish I was exaggerating about all that but no. This dog left perfect bloody foot prints anywhere he walked. He was horrifying to look at, smell, etc… The rescue gal who picked him up has hard copy pictures, so does Berekely Humane I would think. I don’t. I was just trying to deal with him and save his eyes and life.
Baths, lots of baths. antibiotics, 3 different ones, three different eye medications four times a day. Ivermectin injections. 16 weeks at my home, then off to the vet to be neutered and placed. I sent his picture to our rescue president who had picked him up first and she honestly did not recognize him. 6 months later at our rescue parade I didn’t recognize him!
So let’s see, horrifyingly, undeniably suffering dog, small rescue with tight budget. Evil breeders doing lots of care, evil breeder’s vets giving us a decent brake. Inexperienced but dedicated loving new owners taking on a dog with potentially chronic health issues (future possible source of “suffering”)Result: happy healthy dog in loving home.
PETA, 30 plus million dollar budget, “experts”, any suffering dog or cat equals….
Dead dog or cat.
Something just don’t add up.
Comment by JenniferJ — April 13, 2009 @ 3:02 pm
Sorry, that should have said “second to last foster” We did euthanize our last foster. Due to unmanagable epilepsy, after exhausting all reasonable treatment options.
But at least we tried and I have the vet records to prove it.
Comment by JenniferJ — April 13, 2009 @ 3:06 pm
Two months ago I adopted a new kitty from a local emergency vet who does rescue — a little trailer park ‘stray’ who’d been hit by a car and dragged for a bit, broken pelvis, broken back by the base of the tail, broken left femur and femoral neck, degloving injury, and on top of it, all the mites, worms, and fleas you’d expect. I wasn’t given any photos of her at admission, but I’m reasonably sure she wasn’t at all pretty.
She is now — pretty, that is — and active and bouncy as any normal half-grown cat. But what I’ve been thinking about, is how it took the resources and will of a community to save her: the people who saw to it she got to someone who could help, the vet who decided she had a shot and set about seeing to it she got it, the surgical nurse and vet techs who volunteered their time and effort to help fix her, the owners and other employees of the clinic who all of them chipped in … and finally me, to give her a home when all the hard work was done. And I stumbled upon her in a roundabout way, when looking for something else.
It seems to me that if so many people can care for one small badly injured trailer park kitty, and spend so much time, effort and money to put her back together, then the human resources for no-kill are already in place. And PeTA’s full of it. But we knew that last already.
Comment by Eucritta — April 13, 2009 @ 3:58 pm
thanks for all the great info pet connection - I’m new to reading this site and what a find! I’ve been suspicious of PETA for a while - also I happened to hear Nathan Winograd speak in Seattle - read Redemption and now I see things way more clearly - thanks to all you good people I feeling hopeful for animals -
Comment by mary — April 13, 2009 @ 4:20 pm
Eucritta, that’s just it. Animals don’t dwell on what happened yesterday or in the past. yes they can become traumatized but most are astonishingly resilient.
I therefore cannot support the idea that an animal must be “spared” the suffering of recovery from ailment or injury or even confinement to a crate or run for a few days or weeks. That death is better than a temporary discomfort, stress or pain?
Given that sort of criteria, most of us who lived in crappy little quarters and ate top ramen daily when we were struggling to get out on our own should have been pts!
And yep, I find such hope in the fact that each and everytime a dog enters rescue with special needs we always have people step up. We had a bitch come in heavily pregnant, whelp 8 pups and reject them. But we’ve had a dozen people donating time and supplies and care and all eight are going to do very well I think. I get four of them for a week in early May. (yay! puppies to play with! and clean up after ;-) )
If anyone out there wants a bulldog/pibble cross puppy NoCal Bulldog Rescue might just have the pup for you!
Comment by JenniferJ — April 13, 2009 @ 6:07 pm
I do think Newkirk is mentally ill.
And the story shared here really ramps it up a few notches.
My most recent rescue, now two years old, had been so starved the only way I could tell he was a longhaired cat was from the tufts in his ears. At almost five months, we had to teach him how to play.
And now he is a cuddly darling. You would have to live with him to pick up on his deficits, but he’s still getting better and better, and by the time he matures I think he’ll be right where he should be.
I hope the real story about PETA continues to get out there.
Comment by WereBear — April 13, 2009 @ 8:10 pm
Kim Stallwood has a post about campaigning on the society and animals site today, and I think he’s spot on about the kind of mindset that leads to the “everything is better off dead” attitude.
http://www.animalsandsociety.o.....php?id=156
Comment by Rosemary Rodd — April 14, 2009 @ 7:51 am
Ok all! Every single one of you go out today, adopt 2 of the neediest.
There are millions and millions and millions who need homes. Where are all these beautiful homes you’re talking about? Attacking PETA is easier than actually taking on animals in need.
What a bunch of judgmental do-nothings…oh, except to complain about the people doing the painful, awful work.
Gina Spadafori is sanctimonious and has no real answers.
Comment by Dennis Carlson — April 14, 2009 @ 9:53 am
Interesting, Dennis. I’ve run one breed rescue and fostered for two others. I’m the “re-home” for three of my four dogs. Not to mention that with the reporting we do I daresay we’ve saved the lives of thousands of pets from the pet-food recall alone.
But whatever. Shoot the messenger. I guess that means you’re OK with PETA’s kill stats and efforts to get those animal adopted (and Newkirk herself admitted they killed adoptable animals).
I don’t accept PETA’s spin: There ARE other options than killing, killing, killing and blaming it on others. It’s called building no-kill communities. Why isn’t PETA embracing this? That’s the big question.
Comment by Gina Spadafori — April 14, 2009 @ 10:15 am
Dennis: I adopted 2 of the neediest. My 2 cats are former street strays. One needed major dental work, the other dental cleaning, both needed shots and deworming, and ear care. Total vet bill ‘start up’ cost $800. That does not include the $150 paid to adopt.
And let’s not forget about those behavioral issues. One cat so full of energy and nippy that he could hardly be controlled, the other so pathologically withdrawn that it was heartbreaking.
The hours of time I have spent working with these two, building trust, getting them socialized was a major time committment on my part.
And you know what, given the return in love and happiness , its the best investment financially and emotionally I’ve ever made.
I’d like to see ONE RECEIPT, just one, of PETA spending that kind of money and time on 2 of the neediest.
I’m waiting…
Comment by 2CatMom — April 14, 2009 @ 10:39 am
I am doubting Dennis has read any previous comments. He’s a troll. A quick search shows he shows up and comments on any blog or article that is critical of PETA.
If he does read, I’d love an answer to this:
Do the PETA defenders who always show up and scream “Why don’t YOU adopt while thousands die!” really believe that only they and others like them (Dennis hates zoos, carriage horses, purebred dog breeding etc… according to his comments left elsewhere too) are the only ones who care about animals properly? That only if you swallow the who animal liberationist line are you qualified to speak on the issues of animal welfare?
And so that makes Ingrid infaillable? If the grand high PETA mugwhump says it’s so it’s so?
Because that sort of mentality is pretty disturbing. Of course I suspect I know the answer .
Comment by JenniferJ — April 14, 2009 @ 10:56 am
“Ok all! Every single one of you go out today, adopt 2 of the neediest.” Dennis
Let’s see:
Persephone- female tabby; from private rescue after a having been thrown against a wall as a kitten for not getting down off a fake ficus plant when told to at age 6 months; now 6 years old; aka The Princess
Peregrin- male tabby; Humane Society after found wandering alone in a bad neighborhood at age 3 months, very ill (no longer with us as of last year, but was 6 years old)
Eowyn- black female; Humane Society after found wandering alone near a very busy street at age 3 months; now 5 years old; aka The Critter
Michiko- female calico; County Shelter; tamed feral who bit me through the thumbnail second time I picked her up; one of five, came close to euth for not being friendly at age 4 months; now 3 years old and snuggles on the sofa next to me.
Alexander- male tuxedo; County shelter; born there, fostered in private home; adopted in January at age 4 months.
So, Dennis? You. Can. Stick. It.
Comment by Susan Fox — April 16, 2009 @ 11:45 am